Global Showbiz Briefs: UK, France, Iraq

UK Touts Film Tax Relief ResultsBritain’s department of Revenue & Customs released figures today outlining the impact of the country’s production tax breaks. Since the scheme was introduced in January 2007, 760 films have been eligible for the tax relief with 650 films making £645 million worth of claims. Through the end of 2010, 585 films had received £570 million. The total production spend was £5 billion, 75% of it in the UK. Big-budget films had an average spend of £82.9 million. Films budgeted at under £20 million more frequently sought out the relief and were granted a total of £230 million versus £340 million for bigger-budget pics. Under the tax relief program, films with a core expenditure of £20 million or less can claim a 25% rebate on qualifying UK spend while pics with over £20 million in core expenditures can claim 20%. Films must either qualify as British or be an official co-production.

Unifrance Uploads My French Film Festival For 2nd YearFrench film export body Unifrance is launching the second edition of its worldwide online film festival, MyFrenchFilmFestival.com. Beginning January 12, 10 features and 10 shorts will be available for global viewing in 14 languages. The selection is made up of films released in France since January 2010 and will include such pics as Katell Quillevere’s Un Poison Violent, Marianna Otero’s Entre Nos Mains and Valerie Donzelli’s La Reine Des Pommes. Donzelli’s recent La Guerre Est Declaree is France’s entry for the Foreign Language Oscar. The competition films will be voted on by members of the public and the press with three prizes to be awarded. The winners will be screened on Air France flights for six months beginning in June next year. Last year’s online fest saw 40,000 viewings by people in 171 different countries.

Iraqi Film Centre Launches 35mm Workshop
Iraq’s Independent Film Centre has announced the launch of an advanced workshop in 35mm filmmaking. Students on Wednesday this week began training as directors, producers, screenwriters, cinematographers and editors mentored by some of Iraq’s leading talent. The 20 trainees will shoot four short films over the course of the program with a view to going onto professional careers in the industry. The Film Centre was founded by Iraqi filmmakers Mohamed Al-Daradji, Oday Rasheed, Furat Al Jamil and Atia Al-Daradji. Alongside the 35mm film workshops, the Iraqi-American organization Sada, in collaboration with the Centre, will also launch a new online course. Teaching contemporary multimedia art to Iraqi students, the course will be supervised by lecturers from America, Canada and Germany.

Attenborough Gallops To ‘Galapagos 3D’David Attenborough will shoot natural history series Galapagos 3D for Britain’s Sky, marking his fourth 3D project for the group. Scheduled to air on Sky 3D in late 2012, Galapagos will be written and presented by Attenborough and produced by Colossus Productions, which was formed by Sky and Atlantic Productions this summer. The commission is part of Sky’s move to increase its investment in UK-originated content by 50% to £600 million a year by 2014. Attenborough has previously made the such 3D series as BAFTA-winning Flying Monsters 3D and Bachelor King 3D, which will air on Sky 3D on New Year’s Eve.